There is no shortage of advice on writing business plans out there. Much of the advice on business plans is too detailed. The following is a list of the essential elements of a business plan.

But first a couple of thoughts. First, if you enter a business plan competition as part of a school, keep in mind that you are entering a competition within an academic environment. Some things you learn in school might not be applicable in the real world. For one, you might learn in class that you should include five-year financial projections. In the real world, however, predicting financial performance over five years, especially for a startup, is practically impossible. Second, if you are an entrepreneur with dreams of getting VC funding, a business plan might not be the best use of your time or effort. More on this later.

The Market Opportunity Is there a market need for your product or service? What is your estimate of the size of the potential market? What part of this market can be addressed with your product or service? Has the need been validated with potential customers? The best possible validation of your idea is a paying customer. If your product is in development, the next best would be a customer who has signed a contract to purchase your product or service when it is complete. After that, the next best validation would be some comments from potential customers that praise your product or service as being a solution to their needs.

After you demonstrate a market need, think about customer segmentation. You cannot target all customers initially.

Segmentation naturally leads to a discussion about a go-to-market strategy. This section should spell out, at least generally, how you plan to get your first customers. Be creative here. Imagine you wanted to sell industrial equipment. You could demonstrate a way to get your first customers by including a list of people at various companies who are in a position to purchase industrial equipment (or at least need buy-in before such purchases are made). This list could include the names of the people, their position, company name, and contact information. Someone reading this would think-rightly so-that you know what you’re doing to sell your product.

Finally, give some thought to the business model. What are your potential revenue streams? What is your pricing strategy? What is the planned distribution strategy?

The Broader Context Give your audience the broader “macro” context of the industry. What are the legal and regulatory risks involved? What might make this opportunity an attractive investment right now? What might make it a risky investment? For example, government-mandated regulation easily creates demand for any products or services that will help companies comply with new rules.

The Founders and Management Team Use this section to show that you have a solid, experienced management team that can effectively work together to get a product or service to market.

Conclusion If you are going for venture capital funding, keep in mind that many venture capitalists (VCs) do not read business plans. They are simply just too busy. Still, it might still be a good exercise to at least critically think about the above because any pitch you make would probably need to touch on these. If not, you can be sure the VCs will ask you about them. And if you can’t address the above broad areas in sufficient detail, then perhaps you might not be ready to seek funding.